Ranger Mods

Hi All,

Looking for any input you might have on possible sources of my engine issue. Coming home from work before Christmas I noticed she started blowing some white smoke while looking at the reversing camera when parking. I noticed that my coolant level had dropped a bit and so I suspected maybe the EGR cooler had split. For troubleshooting I bypassed the cooler but it made no difference. I ran a FORSCAN check and the only DTC were for #2 & #3 glow plugs, but they have been bad since I bought the ute two years ago. Subsequently I have now also done the following:

1. Performed a cooling system pressure check. It holds 21psi for 10 minutes without dropping pressure or loosing any coolant.
2. Performed compression check with injectors out. No obvious bleed down between cylinder. Reasonable compression #1 280psi, #2 300psi, #3 300psi, #4 300 psi.
3. Swapped out injectors for a second hand set from a running engine with no issue.
4. No bubbles in the coolant rank. No contamination of the coolant.
5. No water in the oil.
6. I marked the coolant level in the tank with some tape. After running the engine several times while troubleshooting and replacing the injectors the level has not changed.

The white smoke is not oil - it does not have the oil smell and it does not linger in the air like oil smoke. It dissipates quite quickly. It does not seem to have a strong smell of diesel, but I don't know what it would smell like if it was diesel as I don't have the experience.

I split my intercooler a few months back and huge amounts of white smoke (I couldn't see the car behind me in my mirrors) came out similar to this. The noise from the air leak was really loud and obvious and I had dash lights for check engine and power train. I have looked over the intercooler and piping now and I can't see or hear anything obvious.

My background is petrol engines and gas turbines. The Rangers are the first diesels I have worked on. What am I missing? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Duncan

should have done a comp test through glow plugs as you will get a better reading and also will tell you if its burning coolant and white smoke doesnt come from oil burning, its either incomplete combustion or coolant. I would be putting my money on the egr cooler. even though you bypassed it, it will still take some time to clear up. replace with genuine only as part has superceded

rusty91 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:44 pm should have done a comp test through glow plugs as you will get a better reading and also will tell you if its burning coolant and white smoke doesnt come from oil burning, its either incomplete combustion or coolant. I would be putting my money on the egr cooler. even though you bypassed it, it will still take some time to clear up. replace with genuine only as part has superceded

Thanks for the reply rusty91. Why do you get a better compression reading through the glow plug holes? It is just a closed volume with two access openings, I would have assumed that either opening will give the same result. And how do I tell if it is burning coolant by pressure testing at the glow plug hole?

On petrol engines the combustion of oil always produces white/blue smoke. Are you saying that diesel engines don't produce smoke when oil is burnt or do you mean that pure white smoke is not oil (it would need a blueish tinge)?

I have run the engine now several times as part of troubleshooting. There is no smoke on start up and for the first 30 seconds or so but then the longer it idles the more it smokes. I have checked the intercooler and pipes several times while running but am yet to find a leak. I am going to pressurise the cylinders next to see if there is any obvious audible leaks. I have not looked at all into any turbo issues because the smoke definitely does not appear to be oil, is there anything I should be looking for in that part of the engine?

Cheers

White smoke usually indicates coolant.
Head gasket or a cracked head maybe.
No bubbles in the water then it doesn't appear to be the above

Only way to be sure would be to take EGR cooler out and see if it's wet inside.
It may take some time to burn the residual water out of egr cooler and that is possibly why there is still white smoke.

I'm guessing you will need to replace it anyway as you need the system functional?

you will generally see a clean tip on a glow plug on a certain cylinder just like a spark plug indicating that cylinder is burning coolant. what kit did you use to do a compression test through the injector ports, only reason i ask is its a shit load easier and soooo much quicker to comp test through glow plug ports as its the same as spark plug ports. injector ports there is alot of room for error and incorrect readings such as sealing washers not seating correctly as you have disturbed the seating surface. To do it correctly through the injector port you would need a proper (expensive) kit and guidance and training to do it correctly.

Cold side intercooler pipe? If oem rubber replace with silicone or hard pipe

Thanks to all for your suggestions. It turns out that the EGR cooler was indeed the issue. NathanSA was correct, it took a long time (much longer than expected) to drain out all the water in the cooler and this was compounded by the fact that I had initially left the transmission cooler in line as well. Once I had isolated the trans cooler and blown out as much residual coolant as possible it did not take too much longer for the smoke to slow down.

Just for info in case it can help anyone in the future I add the following observations from my event:

• My EGR cooler appears to have been leaking water into the exhaust side (at least) as once I had installed a blanking plate on the inlet side between the EGR cooler and EGR valve the smoking still continued.

• After sitting a few days my engine actually had enough coolant in the cylinders to hydraulically lock at one stage. Luckily (and most importantly) because I did not know the the cause of my issue at this time I was only turning the engine over on the starter motor with fuses pulled so it did not fire and it did not damage the engine. I had to pull my injectors and turn the engine over to clear it out. #3 cylinder appeared to be the wettest.

• The smoke was not visible on start up but increased the longer the engine was running.

• For utes with auto gearboxes the trans cooler is in series after the EGR cooler. It is important to separate the two coolers as the trans cooler circuit adds somewhere around half a litre of coolant to that part of the cooling system.

• During trouble shooting I had checked the oil colour and level on several occasions. There was no milkiness and the volume did not seem too bad, although I don't know if anyone else thinks that the Ranger dipsticks are one of the worst to read. After I finished getting the issue solved I dumped the oil and about the first 250-500ml out were coolant. I have since done about 250km monitoring the coolant and oil but there is no change in volume or colour, so it does not appear to have a head gasket issue.

• If you want to do compression tests without pulling the inlet manifold and removing the glow glugs there are adaptor tools for the injectors that work with the standard diesel compression test kits. Dead easy to use and much easier access. Stretch bolts and washers to reinstall the injectors when finished were $35.

• For now I have run the coolant line from the heater box straight to the trans cooler and left the old EGR cooler in place but not connected. I picked up a front mount trans cooler today and will eventually use that and remove the original water/oil cooler.

There is another way of having white smoke coming out of the exhaust especially on early morning start-ups.
All engines induct condensation, especially if like mine yours is parked outside and not in a cosy dry garage.
If you have a oil catch can, and you dont, or you fail to drain it off on a regular basis this can ennd up containing quite a volume of captured moisture, this volume can reach the point where it in turn gets drawn back into the turbo intake and hey presto - you notice a white exhaust smoke.
This obviously wasnt the issue in this instance but its one to be aware of and look out for.